Constitutional Rights Jay Naidoo

Constitutional Rights

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17 May 2012

The adage, from your lips to God’s ears gains new meaning as I find lessons in remote northern Indian villages. The lessons which South Africa has forgotten and needs to re-learn.

I am squatting on the floor of a hut in an Araku tribal village in the north of Andra Pradesh, a populous state of over 80-million in the south of India. It reminds me of the many villages to which I travelled while organising workers in the sugar farms and mills of Natal in the 1980s. The rolling hills, the lush green vegetation, the mango trees filled with ripening fruit. The people are excited. They are members of the Araku Co-operative Society. They have 11,000 farmer-members.

I am a guest of Naandi, an innovative NGO launched in 1999 as a public-private partnership to deliver a hot, nutritious midday meal to children in Hyderabad when the Supreme Court of India ruled that was a child’s constitutional right. Today they feed over 1.3-million children across India.
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  - Naandi
  - Nutrition
  - Social responsibility
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17 May 2012

Emma Mashinini; a leader that represents the true human spirit of our progressive labour movement and the democracy we fought for. Her story should be compulsory reading for all public, private and civil society leaders. They need to be reminded what we fought for and what were the values that underpinned our freedom.

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11 May 2012

South Africa: The last 25 Years

Twenty five years ago there was a fierce contestation of power between the democratic movement and a brutal regime run by the finger wagging “Groot Crocodil.” It will be good to debate what we were prepared to give our lives for then? What we have achieved? And what rights we struggled for then still have to fight for today?

The last 25 years: From a wagging finger to a show of hands | Daily Maverick

It’s been a quarter of a century since South Africa’s last whites-only general election. CHRIS GIBBONS examines what’s changed and what hasn’t.
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  - Apartheid
  - Democracy
  - democratic movement
  - South Africa
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7 May 2012

I have spent several weeks travelling in rural India. I am shocked to see how deeply entrenched the caste system is. It must rank as evil as apartheid was to us in South Africa. And it continues to oppress and exploit communities in India in the 21st century. But I realise like in South Africa that racism will not disappear because the Constitution forbids it. It will be eradicated when we are organised as communities and hold our leaders accountable to the interests of the people and not the interests of economic and political elites.

A candle in the dark | The Hindu
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  - Indian Caste System
  - racism
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7 May 2012

SECTION27 goes to court to demand textbooks in Limpopo schools

I fully support this action. Citizens must not hesitate to use our courts including the highest court in the land, the Constitutional Court, to ensure that their constitutional rights to quality education is implemented.

18 years into my democracy it is an indictment on us that a court is asked to enforce a right that our children are educated properly. We need those responsible for such a negligence of duty to be held accountable. As citizens we want to know who was responsible. Who failed to do what we pay them to do and why they failed to do so?

We have a right to answers without excuses.

I fully support the legal action.

The fight for quality education continues: SECTION27 goes to court to demand textbooks in Limpopo schools.
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  - equal education
  - Quality Education
  - Section27
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2 May 2012

May Day 2012. A Time To Look Ourselves In The Mirror.

May 1st 1986 was a battlefield. That day we won our right to Mayday Inspite of the suffocating State of Emergency. An arrogant apartheid President PW Botha, waved his finger, warning about retribution against revolutionary forces. He meant it. We knew well the acrid smoke of teargas; the menacing phalanx of armed security forces itching to fire their weapons; the savage dogs straining at the leash to attack to us.

But workers now organised under the banner of COSATU had grown confident. Our ranks were swelled by the communities demanding freedom. Orlando stadium was packed to the seams. 100 years after the first celebration of Mayday in the world over one and half million workers in SA declared it a public holiday. No-one was going to rob us of our VOICE.
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  - Cosatu
  - Workers Day 2012
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18 Apr 2012

South Africa: Caught in the Plenty Trap

Is the poverty trap that imprisons nearly half of our population a social construct we have deliberately perpetuated under our democracy? I remember the days of our collecting demands from our people in the People’s Forums for the post apartheid plan. Our plan to eradicate poverty and social inequality. It was bold. It was courageous. Although we moved from the idea of a reconstruction pact that would have tied the alliance to an agreed set of targets to a policy framework it was an important breakthrough. The People would decide. Government would be accountable and transparent.

What happened? Why is it that the bulk of our youth, our most precious resource is today marginalized and alienated? Why do we have brash predatory elites who claim to speak on their behalf? When will the youth find their own genuine leaders to represent their hopes and aspirations like we did in the 70′s. I am convinced it will happen. The role of my generation is to support those who will lead us in the future.
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  - Apartheid
  - education
  - poverty
  - South Africa
  - unemployment
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About Jay

Jay Naidoo is Chair of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Partnership Council of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). Visit his bio page for more information.
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  Picador African is please to invite you to join Emma Mashinini and Jay Naidoo in conversation around the launch of Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life. RSVP Cape Town: booklounge@gmail.com or call 021 462 2425 RSVP Khayetisha: Nina@jandjgroup.com
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- The Souls of White Folk | Mark Heywood
  Archbishop Tutu is absolutely right to ask white people to reflect on themselves and their privileges. Tutu is not invoking guilt [...]
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